Historically, the primary concentration for the ship building industry has been on the construction of new shipping vessels. Unfortunately, the orders for new shipping vessels has been on the decline over the last ten years and at best level orders are expected for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, builders in the shipbuilding industry must enter and compete in other the markets to survive.
One of these markets is in the repair and/or conversion of existing ships. In this market, ship builders are competing for work on remanufacturing ships that have deteriorated and/or broken down from a variety of different factors, such as age, use, misuse, corrosion, etc. To make a bid for remanufacturing ship, the ship builders must determine what is the most viable option for remanufacturing.
Unfortunately, the typical analysis being performed on what is the most viable option for remanufacturable is often crude and/or inaccurate. As a result, the most viable remanufacturing option based on this analysis may not be suggested and/or implemented.
With the typical analysis, the estimated cost as well as the estimated amount of time required to remanufacture the ship is often off. A ship builder relying on one of this prior analysis technique risks bidding to low and/or setting a schedule which can not be met.
Additionally, the typical analysis often fails to take into account the risk priority of different portions of the ship when evaluating the various remanufacturing options. In other words, a particular remanufacturing option may appear to be the most desirable because it is the most cost effective, but because of the criticality of that particular portion of the ship being remanufactured a more expensive and/or time consuming remanufacturing option which is more reliable may have been more desirable.
Further, the typical analysis being performed often fails to take into account the possibility of technology upgrades for some or all portions of the ship. As a result, the most viable remanufacturing option might be one involving the use of a technology upgrade which was never considered.